Admiration
by coffee.mango
Summary: One-shot Hinata thinks of how Naruto has changed in the past months. He gives her motivation. Takes place before Chuunin Exam arc. Naruto x Hinata. -edit: March 10, 2005-


**Admiration  
**

**Summary:** Hinata thinks of how Naruto has changed in the past months. She wants to be like him. Takes place before Chuunin Exam arc. The obvious pairing: Naruto x Hinata. One-shot.

**Detications:** This story was written for my cousin Sheena-chan, who is a huge Naru x Hina fan. This is also deticated to all other Naru x Hina fans out there. I know there are lots of you guys out there.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Naruto characters, settings, plot, etc. etc. Naruto was created by the great Masashi Kishimoto. Oh yes, I also do not own Pocky. It was created by a company called Meiji I think.

_**Fanfic edited:** March 10, 2005 _

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It was a dazzling, sunny morning in the Hidden Leaf Village. There spotted Hinata, strolling down the main path. She was on a mission. Well, more like a scavenger hunt.

A few miles down was Naruto, walking on the same route. He was heading for that same bridge where Team 7 had always met in the morning.

Hinata glanced up in the sky. _It's so bright today... eh?_ Hinata picked up footsteps in the distance. She turned around and used Byakugan. _It's– it's Naruto-kun..._ She turned back around and began to walk again, in another direction, acting as if she never noticed him.

_Naruto-kun sure has changed a lot since the days at the academy... He isn't alone anymore. His companions from his team keep him company all the time now. Naruto seems a lot more cheerful, and stronger. _Hinata smiled with hands folded behind her back. Then she looked down and blushed.

Hinata didn't seem to notice that as she was walking, she went off the main path and got into Konoha Forest. But she couldn't stop herself from thinking of Naruto. _Naruto is so.. cool. He's also brave.. different from me... I want to be like him. I want to change..._

Hinata's thoughts trailed off. She looked down and blushed. She then realized that she was in the forest._ Eh? How did I.. How did I get here?_ She realized that she kept on thinking of Naruto, so she trailed off the main path. _Oh I'd be so embarrassed if Naru—_

"Oi! Hinata-chan." Naruto had popped out of nowhere.

Hinata was taken by surprise. She took a step back, but she tripped over her foot. She ended up on the ground. "N-naruto-kun..."

Naruto ran towards Hinata. "Ah, Hinata-chan! You okay?"

"I', fine, Naruto-kun.." She looked up and saw Naruto staring back at her. Then she quickly looked down and blushed.

_Hinata-chan can never seem to look at me in the eye. That's strange..._ Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. "Aa!" Then he took out a kind of stick with a strawberry coating on it. "Want one?"

Hinata looked up. _It was... Pocky! Strawberry flavor.. _Hinata took the Pocky stick from Naruto. "A-arigatou.. Naruto-kun." Hinata bit into it. _Mmm... I should buy some more of this at the marketplace later.. __  
_  
Naruto smiled. He took another Pocky stick from the box and chewed on it.

When they both finished, Naruto asked Hinata. "So Hinata-chan, exactly why were you hanging out here anyways? I saw you walking on the path but then you started off into Konoha Forest."

"Oh... well..." _Might as well tell him than..._ "I'm—I'm on a mission. Eh, well not really. See, Kiba-kun recently lost track of Akamaru. I'm helping him search right now."

"Aa.. sou-ka.. Oh! Want me to help you? I'm really good at searching!" Naruto said, taking Hnata's hand.

"Eh! Eto.. i-it's ok Naruto-kun.. I can look by myself."

"Oh, ok." Naruto replied, a little dissapointed.

The two were quiet for a while. Hinata sat down. Naruto sat down too, and then lied on his back. He began to stare at the clouds. "Hey! Look at that cloud!" Naruto was pointing to a small cloud passing by.

Hinata looked up. "Oh.. it looks like.. a bunny! It's very cute.."

"You're right!" Naruto said, smiling. "Hinata, are you ready for the Chuunin Exam?" Naruto asked, changing the topic.

"Eto.. H-hai... but I'm a little nervous.." Hinata blushed. She _hoped _she could do well.

"Don't worry Hinata! You're going to do fine!" Naruto got up. "And it's going to be so exciting! I can't wait to fight all those other ninjas.." Naruto said enthusiastically. Hinata smiled at him. The two went back to staring at the clouds.

Hinata spotted a cloud that looked like... a puppy. _Ara! I forgot.. I have to find Akamaru! _"Hey, Naruto.. I think I should go back to finding Akamaru."

"Oh yeah! Gomen-ne! I was distracting you." Naruto said.

"I-iie.. it's ok, Naruto-kun.." Hinata trailed off.

Naruto got up. "Well then, good luck Hinata-chan! Ja ne!" Naruto smiled. He turned around and headed out of the forest, as he waved good bye.

"J-ja, Naruto-kun.." _There he goes.. he's so cool.. and so carefree. Not like me.. I-I hope I can change... I hope I can change just like Naruto did... _

Just then, Hinata heard a barking sound. _Akamaru! _Akamaru appeared and jumped into Hinata's arms. "Akamaru, where have you been? We've been seaching everywhere!" Akamaru barked in reply.

"Let's go back to Kiba-kun. He'd be happy to see you." Akamaru happily barked again. Hinata started to head out of Konoha Forest. She looked up into the sky. _Naruto-kun, just you wait. I'm going to change too._

**owaru**

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**A/N:** Another edited fanfic of mine. A change in the ending mostly. The other changes were pretty minor.. Hopefully there aren't any spelling/grammer mistakes in this.

Also, some japanese you guys should already know: _'Ja ne_' means 'see you later'. '_Sou ka' _means 'I see'. THere are some others, but I think they are pretty self-explanatory. And_ Pocky _is the wonderful snack Japanese kids eat. It's like a breat stick (cannot think of a better description >. ) with chocolate filling. There are also tons of other flavors, strawberry, vanilla, coconut, you name it! You can get Pocky at your local Asian food store.

So I hoped you enjoyed reading this fanfic. See that button on the bottom there? Click it, and review! Pweetty please? )


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